‘The Approach Down:’ Elizabeth Hannah Cheers HBO Max Woes

The Aug. 6 tackle earlier than the meeting at Remnant Fellowship — delivered to an in-person gathering in Brentwood, TN, and through webcast to anybody who would possibly need to watch — started usually sufficient, with congregants watching an outdated video sermon from Gwen Shamblin Lara, the church’s late founder who died in a aircraft crash on Might 29, 2021.

What occurred after the video portion ended, although, was uncommon. In a portion of the sermon, obtained by Selection, Elizabeth Hannah, Lara’s daughter and a frontrunner at Remnant, referred to as in, as she typically does. However as an alternative of her ordinary teachings for Saturday service, Hannah delivered a homily of schadenfreude aimed immediately at HBO Max, the enemy of Remnant and the Shamblin household.

Hannah’s grudge towards HBO Max has a particular and pointed historical past. On Sept. 30 of final yr, the streamer dropped the primary three episodes of Marina Zenovich’s investigative docuseries “The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin,” which detailed its topic’s rise from being a food regimen guru along with her Weigh Down Workshop (launched in 1986) to her founding of Remnant Fellowship in 1999. After being married to Hannah’s father, David Shamblin, for 40 years, she remarried Joe Lara in 2018, and took his title. Lara was piloting the aircraft that crashed during which they and 5 different Remnant leaders, together with Hannah’s husband, died; the ultimate two episodes of “The Approach Down” had been re-edited to include the accident and its aftermath, and had been launched on April 28 on HBO Max.

“The Approach Down” featured numerous ex-congregants and food regimen followers who alleged that Shamblin Lara wielded a damaging energy over their lives — controlling their funds, their marriages, how they parented, and their contact with the surface world. Former Weigh Down Workshop members additionally alleged that Shamblin Lara inspired disordered consuming, as she equated weight acquire with sin.

On the Remnant web site, there’s a lengthy comment about “The Way Down,” which denies the “absurd, defamatory statements and accusations made on this documentary,” and disputing particular allegations throughout the docuseries.

The Aug. 6 service at Remnant was solely days after Warner Bros. Discovery’s earnings presentation, the primary since Discovery acquired WarnerMedia (and HBO Max). Within the lead-up to the presentation, the Hollywood rumor mill had gone into overdrive, with doomsday situations about HBO Max’s future that appeared to have reached Hannah.

So for greater than three minutes, as one other Remnant chief held a microphone as much as the telephone, Hannah exulted in HBO Max’s troubles. Prefacing her feedback by saying, “This can be a massive win,” Hannah implied that HBO Max will quickly be “changed subsequent yr by a brand new service mixed with Discovery+,” a method of the conglomerate’s streamers that had been announced in March. Hannah then celebrated the company’s Aug. 5 stock drop the day after the earnings announcement  — which was adopted by a 34-second standing ovation by the congregation. (Hannah’s full remarks are included under, in addition to audio and video of that portion of the sermon.)

She goes on to say that whereas she has no grievances with “any explicit information station or any explicit social media or any explicit, , media streamline,” HBO Max “selected to go up towards my mom,” and due to this fact she has been “praying so exhausting to God would shut the mouths of the enemy.” Hannah may have prayed for one thing a lot worse, she made clear, citing the example from the book of Kings in the Bible when Elisha “referred to as down one thing, and 42 individuals had been mauled by a bear.”

“And I didn’t ask for that!” Hannah stated. “I didn’t ask for something tremendous troublesome for the enemy. And all I requested was that their mouths can be closed. And in a lot love, I simply requested that they’d go away. And I consider that God is answering these prayers. So that is thrilling!”

Hannah then stepped straight into the current information cycle surrounding HBO Max: how the streaming service would quickly be dropping titles, or as she put it, “tons of, if not hundreds, of movies that haven’t produced excessive scores — and so if everybody will pray that our explicit, , present shall be introduced down.”

When reached for remark, a spokesperson for Remnant despatched Selection a press release from Hannah reiterating her remarks: “I’ve been praying that any false, defamatory accusations from any media supply can be silenced — and that extra fact may very well be proven to the world concerning the Remnant Fellowship and Gwen Shamblin Lara.”

HBO Max and “The Approach Down” producers declined to touch upon Hannah’s sermon. However the firm did verify {that a} beforehand introduced scripted adaptation of the collection by Michelle Dean (“The Act”) continues to be very a lot in lively improvement.

This can be a massive win. However what I heard on Wednesday night time — together with a rainbow being throughout the again of the church — was that HBO Max shall be changed subsequent yr by a brand new service mixed with Discovery+. And it was reported that the HBO’s proprietor had the biggest one-day drop in its inventory value in historical past yesterday. [APPLAUSE, 34-second standing ovation.] Sure, sure, sure! Effectively, I’ll go forward and conclude at this time, as a result of I do know that our Father in heaven should be happy. And once more, that is nothing towards any explicit information station or any explicit social media or any explicit, , media streamline — and something like that. However as a result of that individual channel selected to go up towards my mom [CHUCKLES] — and all of us, and those who I consider are following the spirit of God — I’ve been praying. I’ve been praying, and I’ve been praying so exhausting to God would shut the mouths of the enemy. And like I’ve stated earlier than, once I prayed over it, over the ocean, a double rainbow got here once I prayed that God would shut the mouths of the enemy. And I may have prayed something! There have been leaders within the Bible that prayed — I imply they prayed some critical curses. I imply, like, powerful —actually powerful. The double prophet referred to as down one thing, and 42 individuals had been mauled by a bear. And I didn’t ask for that! I didn’t ask for something tremendous troublesome for the enemy. And all I requested was that their mouths can be closed. And in a lot love, I simply requested that they’d go away. And I consider that God is answering these prayers. So that is thrilling! It’s thrilling, and I do know that as they swap over to a brand new service, they’ll be eliminating — that is what I heard — was tons of, if not hundreds, of movies that haven’t produced excessive scores. And so if everybody will pray that our explicit, , present shall be can be introduced down. Who would have guessed? Who would have guessed that inside one yr that God may even remove it? You understand, it’s simply unbelievable — unbelievable victories! So we have to be doing one thing proper, my associates! So I really like you all. And I again up authority endlessly. And I pray you all be part of with me, as a result of I’m not stopping. So I hope you’re coming with me. I really like you guys! Amen.